When scientists talk about the cryosphere, they mean the places on Earth where water is in its solid form, frozen into ice or snow. Read more ...

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Research Project: Contribution to High Asia Runoff from Ice & Snow (CHARIS)

This collaborative study assesses the role of glaciers and seasonal snow cover in the hydrology of the mountains of High Asia.

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CHARIS People & Partners

A cross-boundary effort is required to improve our understanding of the High Asia regional water resources. In order to achieve this goal, University of Colorado scientists are working directly with researchers at institutions in eight different nations where ice and snow resources are located across High Asia (Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan). These countries contain the headwaters of the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers. This collaboration includes joint research activities, such as cooperative field studies and model development, as well as capacity building (technical training, graduate student support, workshops) that will enhance the scientific understanding of the regional hydrology among our Asian partners.

University of Colorado Researchers

Richard Armstrong, Principal Investigator, Senior Research Scientist and Fellow of CIRES. Leads the project with a perspective gained from more than 30 years in snow and ice research, including extensive glacier mass balance studies.

Mark Williams, Professor of Geography and Fellow of INSTAAR.As Co-Investigator, Mark oversees field collection and laboratory analyses of water samples for isotopic and geochemical content, and conducts hydrologic mixing models using these data sources. Mark has extensive fieldwork experience in High Asia.

Siri Jodha Singh Khalsa, Research Scientist. Oversees DEM generation and evaluation, and assembles the MODIS snow cover product for use in the snowmelt runoff models and trend analysis.

Adina Racoviteanu, Project consultant. Expertise in remote sensing and GIS for glacier change detection and mass balance monitoring, with an emphasis on mapping debris covered glaciers. Adina has extensive High Asia field work experience.

Bruce Raup, Senior Associate Scientist. Oversees the evaluation and use of existing and new outlines for derivation of glacier hypsometries, and ensures that new glacier outlines are inserted into the NSIDC GLIMS Glacier Database. Bruce has glacier field work experience.

Karl Rittger, Associate Scientist. Brings an expert understanding of how spectral signatures can be applied to map and model snow and ice melt in satellite imagery.

Alana Wilson, Graduate student. Collects and analyzes water samples; helps establish sampling protocols with South and Central Asian partners. Alana has fieldwork experience in High Asia.

Ulyana Horodyskyj, Graduate student. Fieldwork will obtain spectrometer and other measurements with which to validate satellite derived albedo estimates and snow-cover maps. Ulyana has fieldwork experience in High Asia.

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Related Projects & Organizations

More than sixty institutions world-wide are working with the GLIMS project to build a glacier inventory storing critical information about the world’s estimated 160,000 glaciers. CHARIS is using glacier outlines from GLIMS, along with other sources, to validate glacier maps from MODIS.

In 2012, this European Union project, EU-FP7, held a workshop on Glaciers, Snow Melt, and Runoff in the Himalayas. The workshop report identifies interest groups and highlights research needs. Major findings and recommendations are summarized for policy makers.

This NASA project will provide water resources management information on Himalyan glacier fed rivers. HIMALA makes use of satellite remote sensing, as well as projections of climate change impacts on water resources.

NRC works for better government decision making and public policy with the aid of independent, expert reports and scientific activities. CHARIS scientist Mark Williams is a co-author of an NRC sponsored report.